Artificial Sweeteners Lead to Weight Gain?

I read about this research in the paper yesterday. I believe the conclusion was that because the rats ate things which were sweet but low-calorie, this confused their sense of how much food they needed. So they ate more food overall than the rats who had sugar.

I can follow the logic there -- but I'm unconvinced that human brains work quite the same as rat ones! Especially if you count calories or otherwise track what you eat, this seems unlikely to pose a problem.

Ali

I don't have that sweetener but do drink diet drinks ans haven't noticed any difference in my weight

Ultimately, it's how much food you eat. Just keep track of that and you'll be O.K. Nobody's saying diet cola directly causes you to get fat, but rather that people who drink diet cola may eat more of other stuff.

It seems that research these days can find an excuse for anything to lead to anything. Lets see what they say next week!

Meh. I'm losing weight week after week right now, and I inhale Splenda in every cup of coffee I drink. (And I can drink me some coffee.)

I can see the point that eating artificially sweet foods could stimulate people to eat more, lulling them into a false sense of security. But so long as you're counting calories, and are burning more calories than you consume, I don't see the issue.

I've always been of the opinion that if I'm going to have something, it's going to be "real" food-- real sugar or honey rather than sweeteners. I have very little of it, but if I do I keep it natural. I have a soda maybe once every 2-3 months... but when I have it, it is not diet.

My DH drinks gallons of diet soda. He's significantly obese. Obviously that's not scientifically valid (one person), but it does seem to jive with the findings of several studies.

Flawed study....because the artificial sweetener group ate MORE calories. It's a mental thing "Oh I will have the Big Mac, Fries...and oh course a Diet Coke." There is no justification to eating excess calories.

It's an interesting question whether merely consuming sweet (calories or no) can result in weight gain. There's a distinct possibility that there's a metabolic cascade that is set in motion in response to sweet beyond the appetite stimulus that clearly occurs. If this is the case then it's much more challenging to reformulate the diet than just shuffling the calories out because flavoring becomes key as well.

Mike OD said:
Flawed study....because the artificial sweetener group ate MORE calories. It's a mental thing "Oh I will have the Big Mac, Fries...and oh course a Diet Coke."

Every time I see a study like this, that's what I think. I highly doubt that something without calories will make you gain weight unless you eat more because you think you can.

As they are toxic to the body systems, there is likely a physiologic effect of the artificial sweeteners which causes a deficit of nutrition, requiring the positive intake of real foods. I don't think it is all mental.

moddoctor said:
It's an interesting question whether merely consuming sweet (calories or no) can result in weight gain. There's a distinct possibility that there's a metabolic cascade that is set in motion in response to sweet beyond the appetite stimulus that clearly occurs.

Yes, I have heard it conjectured that insulin is released in the instance of sweet flavorings, as a sort of conditioned response. This might very well be the case. One doesn't get fat without insulin.

moddoctor said:
It's an interesting question whether merely consuming sweet (calories or no) can result in weight gain. There's a distinct possibility that there's a metabolic cascade that is set in motion in response to sweet beyond the appetite stimulus that clearly occurs. If this is the case then it's much more challenging to reformulate the diet than just shu[...]

That's interesting. I am intrigued by the theory proposed by the fellow who came up with the Shangri-la diet that our bodies associate certain flavours with high calories and that's why we seek those flavours out - a throwback to our distant past when you packed on as many calories as you could in preparation for lean times ahead. The idea I guess is that we would crave ice cream, or soda pop, or mac and cheese, or whatever because our body had learned that those flavours have a calorie windfall going along with them.

It seemed like a wacky idea when I first encountered it, but now I'm not so sure, I think there is something more to this weight loss equation than just summoning your willpower and cutting back on calories. So many people I know have gained back weight even if they did not go back to their old habits, it's like minds are determined to get bodies back to a particular weight. I just have a sense that someday we will come up with a reason beyond lack of willpower to explain why people have a hard time taking off weight and keeping it off.

I never deal with food cravings during the day, but no matter how well I feed myself during the day, I fight food cravings all evening. This has been happening for the past few years, and it could be hormonal. I win the battle, most of the time, but it's really miserable to deal with. I usually distract myself by going for a walk (not a bad thing). It leaves me wondering, if I'm feeling like I need to eat, and I'm not bored, I don't eat for emotional reasons, and I my body doesn't need more food, what drives this??

But I do agree with the folks that say that some people think that having an artificially sweetened drink is license to gorge themselves on other things, I see it in grocery store lineups all the time - an appalling pile of fattening processed junk and a couple of cases of diet pop.

just count calories and be conscious of what you're eating, and you won't have a problem.

Doh, they're appetite stimulants. Better to ditch all the artificial crap and stick to whole, unprocessed foods like raw deer carcass. Right Kailash?

From what I recall it is due to your insulin spiking when you taste something sweet, not just when you have sugary carbs. Isn't this what the Shangri-La diet is all about?

In the case of humans it is psychological (like someone mentioned diet coke plus #1 value meal). But for mice? Probably the sugar sub spiked insulin levels, maybe even more than normal sugar given that gram for gram sweeteners are more sweet. Spike in insulin means crash in insulin level which means more hunger, which means -- drumroll -- more weight gain.

I read about this subject with much skepticism. These studies are often very sensational and very flawed. My wife has been a healthcare professional for many years now specializing in the area of weight management, so I’ll wait to get her input before I jump to any conclusions: however the insulin spike could be a factor but then I don’t really know. I sure would hate to give up my diet soda. Thank you all for your input, I will point my wife to this blog and see what she has to say.

Ken

Free diet reviews:
Top Ten Diets at dietester.com

Although I am careful to avoid the kinds of foods that would produce insulin spiking/crashing, I don't remember the shangri-la diet book talking much about that. It's been a long time since I read it though. What I remember concerned your mind learning to associate certain food flavours with high calories, resulting in an urge to eat those foods, whether they were carbs or fat or whatever, in an attempt to keep increasing your body weight "set point". Still, I don't rule out your body reacting to artificial sugar in the same way it does to real sugar, and I avoid them both for that and other reasons.

While I agree, totally, that the most straightforward equation, the one we all know, is 1+1=2, (calorie reduction plus exercise equals weight loss), I just think that there may be a different and possibly better equation that hasn't been proven yet - maybe 6-5+1=2 will be found to be a more effective equation, even if it's not the most obvious one, if that makes any sense? As an example, I think about that doctor who presented the study that ulcers were caused by an infection, he was nearly laughed out of the conference he presented at, because it flew in the face of conventional wisdom, but he thought way outside the box, and he was right.

I can see that a rat would taste something sweet and possibly be able to compensate for it later by not eating as much rat chow. But perhaps the taste of the saccharin to the rats is not the same as sugar, so they don't register it as "sweet" and so they eat more later. I think with humans, if you drink diet sodas and figure that entitles you to eat donuts and Big Macs to your heart's content, you'll probably gain weight. But if you're just replacing sugar-sweetened drinks with diet ones, you'll probably lose weight.

In my endeavor to change my eating lifestyle and lose weight, which includes watching my calorie intake and moderately exercising, that if I do have a Diet Coke, my body reacts differently. No so much that I feel the pounds adding on with every sip. But my weight does not change for a couple of days, as compared to drinking water. Yes, I am one of those people that hops on the scale everyday, just so that I can learn how my body works.

For example, the best time for me to weigh myself is the morning, where I am at my lowest. By mid-day and afternoon, I am 4 lbs higher. Pretty consistant. But add a Diet Coke in the mix (with caffine, which might also be the problem) and I stay at the 4 lbs, even for the next morning. So even though I LOVE Diet Coke, its considered as a splurge, and definately not for everyday.

One Diet a Coke a day = one day closer to death

Aren't we all one day closer to death every day anyway? Or is this an extra day?

My friends drinks a 2 liter of diet pop every single day and has been doing so for as long as I've known him. He is diabetic, so he must feel the need to. He hates water.

How can one hate water? Maybe he's drinking dirty tap? Tell him to buy mountain spring water. It's available pretty cheap if you buy it in bulk.

Cindyloo said:
My friends drinks a 2 liter of diet pop every single day and has been doing so for as long as I've known him. He is diabetic, so he must feel the need to. He hates water.[...]

Though I think that's a really bad habit, especially for a diabetic, I do get it. I only ever crave sweet drinks when I'm dehydrated. If someone doesn't like water then they might very well get dehydrated and crave the pop. It's better just to keep well hydrated with water.

Fitness_Fanatic said:
How can one hate water? Maybe he's drinking dirty tap? Tell him to buy mountain spring water. It's available pretty cheap if you buy it in bulk.[...]

Better yet, tell him to buy a filter for his home water, it will taste just like the mountain spring stuff, and keep a few thousand more plastic bottles out of landfills.

Fitness_Fanatic said:
Tell him to buy mountain spring water. .[...]

My DH will drink purified water but HATES spring water.

I think you have to get used to water to like it. At first it seems to have not much flavor and people are used to the pumped up crap. As you get used to it, you prefer it. I drink only water most the time now. I don't get people ordering soda with everything.

Why can't they just test this on actual people? I'm not against testing on animals, but this is a fairly mundane experiment. There's no reason why researchers can't repeat this on human subjects.

Fitness_Fanatic said:
Doh, they're appetite stimulants. Better to ditch all the artificial crap and stick to whole, unprocessed foods like raw deer carcass. Right Kailash?

I prefer medium-rare.

I have to say that I have believed this for a long time. I work as a server and the people who get unsweet tea will use everything in the caddies (what holds the sugar, sweet-n-low, splenda, etc) except the actual sugar. Now you can't tell me that these people are going to lose weight when they literally use 21 packs of sweetener instead of 2-4 packs of sugar. You may think that I am joking but I have seen two people avoid the sugar on the table like a disease while they ask me for more and more sweet-n-low (up to 30 packets for two-five glasses of tea). These people are almost always over-weight (and grumpy I might add) so I have always thought that the sugar, although higher in calories is much better for you than using double that amount of an artifical substance.

Just my thoughts, but I have been waiting for a study like this to come out (or at least me come across it) because I have been thinking this for about 2 years now.

I have a real concern about this and it opens a lot of questions for me. I am currently undergoing a one-year program of “investigative dieting” where I try a new diet each month throughout 2008 and then document my results. Doesn’t sound healthy, I know, but I want to solve the diet conundrum for all of us who have said “I went on a diet, followed it exactly and didn’t lose weight”. I am now wondering about the impact of diet soda, but also the artificial sweetener I put in coffee, tea, and oatmeal. Does that have the same effect? If the thinking is that it is a mental effect and the diet soda causes people to over eat, then a food journal (one of our diet principles at dozendiets.com) would certainly help with that, but the intial parts of this article (which of course is not “new” information, but repackaged info - this has been out there for at least 3 years) seem to indicate that it might be more than just overeating as a result of diet soda consumption. Is there a metabolic affect that cannot be overcome and thus dieting is to no avail? It is interesting. If I plateau on one of my diets, I may have to try cutting the diet soda at least. It seems quite difficult to cut all artificial sweetener, but maybe not. I’ve never tried it.

Joel Gates
www.dozendiets.com

Artificial sweeteners are toxic - Be Warned!! Aspartame and Saccharin, and the supposedly 'safe' Sucralose (which is in fact a combination including Aspartame) can mimic mental health problems such as depression and anxiety (panic attacks, phobias and many more).

If you suffer with depression or anxiety related problems and you drink caffeine, low sugar or 'sugar-free' drinks, and consume diet foods then you are at high risk of feeding emotional problems.

I have many clients who, once removing sweeteners from their diets have drastically improved their moods and their general health.

The other mood affecting substance is casein, found in dairy (cow) products - milk, cheese, Butter, spreads, whey, lactose, yogurt etc. If you remove these substances for one week you will see a difference - you may experience some withdrawal symptoms, but then you will start to feel better - honest
dawn
Dr Dawn Heather DCHyp
Chartered Scientist

CORRECTION: should read:
'Sucralose is a combination including CHLORINE'
apologies for the error
thanks
dawn

Being thin may simply be within the normal ranges for your genetic makeup. However, thinness can also indicate a variety of medical conditions, especially if it arises via weight loss. Any growth abnormality or unexplained weight loss needs careful professional medical investigation.

splenda and other sweetenrs can cause weight gain theoretically (& probably very insignificantly unless you have thousands a day) because they are toxins... therefore your liver has to work extra hard to eliminate them from your blood stream. it makes sense. if your liver is busy elimainating these poisons that your body DOES NOT RECOGNISE AS NUTRITION... it has less time to efficiently rmetabolise fats. therefore you may store more fat in your body than you would otherwise. a healthy liver = a healthy body & metabolism. it's all linked up. also, it IS TRUE that you will have an increased appetite from using A.S. as your body thinks it's getting sugar, then when it realises it isn't, the brain sends signals to get that sugar. it just confuses things. and i definately agree with them causing anxiety as i have experienced this first hand, amoungst many other side effects. but they are addictive as hell! hope this helps.